Thursday, July 24, 2014

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Linda McQuaig criticizes the Cons' use of the tax system to try to silence charities who don't match their political message:

PEN now joins Amnesty International, the David Suzuki Foundation,
Canada Without Poverty, the United Church and other groups that, having
criticized an array of Harper policies, have been obliged to devote
precious resources to defending themselves from a special probe of
charities ordered by the Harper government.

This beefing-up of tax audits of charities is particularly striking
when compared to Harper’s laid-back approach to auditing the real bad guys: corporations and citizens using offshore tax havens to cheat the government out of billions of dollars in revenue.

By contrast, putting extra resources into auditing charities will almost certainly produce no additional revenue.
...
(W)hile there aren’t enough auditors to go after many of the wealthy
Canadian corporations and individuals hiding money offshore, the
government managed to find two auditors to spend three days this week at
PEN’s little Toronto office — the beginning of an audit that will go on
for many months.

The Harperites may be inept at using audits to collect vast sums of
revenue hidden by the rich — but they sure know how to beat up on
defenceless groups trying to promote the public good.

- And Dean Beeby breaks the news that the Cons aren't satisfied going after charitable organizations, and instead want to be able to compile their own list of individual donors as well. But there is some push for disclosure where it's actually needed as a check on undue institutional influence, as MoveOn is calling for corporate spending in U.S. politics to be subject to public scrutiny.

- Bill Curry reports
on the C.D. Howe Institute's recommendation that the federal government
focus on economic development rather than deficit scolding - with Joe
Oliver naturally responding that he has no interest in job creation if
it might conflict with his political goals. And Rick Goldman comments on the futility of using austerity policies in the name of fighting deficits when they ultimately cause more harm than good even by that measure.

- Steven Chase discusses the latest application of the Baird Doctrine that bluster matters more than action in foreign policy - as a much-trumpeted aid announcement for the Ukraine four months ago has led to zero actual contribution from Canada.

- Finally, David Atkins connects the U.S.' drift to the right with participation in party primaries - as the Tea Party and other right-wing groups have driven Republican turnout (and thus policy oriented toward its base) while Democrats have been increasingly staying on the sidelines over the past 40 years:

When conservatives don't get what they want, they tend to double down at
the ballot box. When progressives don't get what they want, many of us
tend to storm away and fantasize about engaging the system outside of
electoral politics somehow. This is part of why conservatives have been
successful in moving the country to right.

I've brought these points up again and again.
Politicians don't care about people who don't vote, and the Tea Party
gets coddled because they actually vote in primaries and Democrats tend
not to.

But, of course, Democratic politicians also bear a lot of the blame.
It's awfully hard to get motivated to vote when you know that not much
is going to change regardless of the outcome.

Even so, you can't lay the entire blame for the problem at the feet of
centrist corporate Democrats. The trend toward lower turnout started in
1970, hardly the heyday of the DLC. Yes, Democratic politicians need to
do a better job of advancing progressive priorities and building base
enthusiasm. But progressive voters also need to come out and actually
vote, too.